


Justice Newsies

by pennysparrow



Series: Justice Newsies [1]
Category: DCU (Comics), Justice League - All Media Types, Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Gen, Modern Era, Newsies Justice League AU, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-14 04:29:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16033007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pennysparrow/pseuds/pennysparrow
Summary: SoHarmonyLoverasked me to (challenged me to? lol, nah I just took it as a challenge) consider a Newsies Justice League and I just... ran with it? This is what came out of that, cross posted from mytumblr.





	Justice Newsies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HarmonyLover](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarmonyLover/gifts).



> This is literally a cross post from tumblr so it's some stream of consciousness, mostly mini fics, and a lot of weird formatting.

Ok, so I’m going to mess around significantly with the definition of reincarnation and the origin stories for DC. Hold on to your caps folks cause here comes word vomit.

Jack/Batman:

  * In what he says is an ironic twist of fate he was reborn into a very wealthy family, only to lose his parents as a child and grow up isolated and alone. The night he lost his parents was also the night he regained his memories of his old life, where he was bitterly poor and had to work for everything but was surrounded by love and people.
  * At first Alfred was wary of him claiming to be a leader of a Newsboy strike, especially when the young detective investigating Jack’s parents’ murder who Jack claimed to have been a reporter who helped to cover the strike completely refuted all of Jack’s claims. But when Jack came running into the kitchen one Sunday afternoon with printouts of newspaper clippings from Gotham Public Library that clearly showed a picture of the strike with Jack smack dab in the middle Alfred had to admit that this wasn’t some wild grief caused fantasy. 
  * Knowing exactly how harsh and cruel the world can be when you have nothing Jack redoubled the efforts of his mother’s foundation and charity work. He was disgusted by how corrupt Gotham was, thinking that over the decades the world might have gotten better. Jack was especially spurned on by that young detective who Jack had now made a point to befriend. Knowing that he didn’t have friends and allies like before to speak out and fight with words, Jack did what he knew was effective and turned to fighting with fists.
  * He works his butt off and draws further into himself as he fights for ideals of justice which he thought he’d already won. He becomes an urban legend, a figure of myth, helping to solve and prevent crimes by working with Denton once again. Only this time he’s the one providing resources and knowledge and the now Commissioner of Police Denton has no idea that Batman is Jack, nor that Jack is Jack Kelly the charismatic union leader.



Katherine/Wonder Woman:

  * Katherine knew she was reincarnated from the moment she was born, all the new Amazons were. They became Amazons for their bravery and fighting in their past lives. The rest like Queen Hippolyta were part of the islands original inhabitants. What made her unique however was that she missed her previous life and longed to go back. When the time came for a champion to go to the World of Man once again, Katherine eagerly entered the competition and won the title of Wonder Woman and the right to accompany the Princess Diana as an ambassador from Themyscira. 
  * Initially Kath was horrified to see so much of the world still in pain and fighting and filled with injustices and war, but she was a warrior and knew that there was good in people. That the bad just had the loudest voices. She took delight in helping others, acting as a “superhero” and giving speeches on peace alongside Diana. 
  * She heard rumors of the fabled Batman in Gotham, who struck fear into the hearts of criminals and brought food and blankets to homeless shelters in the dead of night, so Kath decided to do some digging. She waited in the shadows on the rooftop of GCPD, wating for someone to flip on the huge searchlight that did more to confirm the rumors as true in Kath’s mind than Diana’s claims to have met and worked with the man before. She was shocked to see the man who flipped on the signal and stood next to it expectantly was none other than Bryan Denton. She warred with herself about blowing her cover versus getting to speak to him again when a voice behind her said lowly “Katherine Plumber, as I live and breath.”
  * Jack was nearly decapitated when Kath drew her sword and whirled on him. His arm shooting up and gauntlet stopping the blade just a second before. She paused, now face to face with the Batman who was apparently not only very real but knew her name. Knew her  _pen name_. She swept his feet out from under him and he landed on the ground with a surprised huff as Kath pinned him and demanded he tell her how he knew her. That earned her a cheeky grin. A rather  _familiar_  cheeky grin. “May I?” he asked and motioned towards his cowl. Kath got up but kept her sword trained on him as he removed the mask. “Jack,” she breathed as he smiled and she pounced again, this time pulling her into a fierce hug. Kath let him go to talk to Denton and then met up with him again on his way to a case.
  * They talked the entire time Jack worked on his case, Kath even convincing him to let her fly him because “I’ve got these neat powers Jack, might as well let me use them!” “No names in the field.” “You used my name first!” “I was surprised.” “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Then they went back to the cave and really caught up with each other, Jack explaining that Denton either didn’t remember his previous life or refused to admit it. Kath was shocked to see Jack’s home was even bigger than her father’s had been and was delighted to meet the kind man who had raised Jack. Her heart broke when she realized how lonely he was and pretty much forced her way into his life. 



David/Superman and Sarah/Supergirl:

  * David always knew he was different, the spaceship he arrived in that his parents kept in the barn was a big giveaway, but when the memories started manifesting alongside his powers David had to admit that maybe there was a little more to it.
  * He tried using the Kryptonian tech that was on the ship to figure out how someone who was so obviously an alien could have memories of growing up in New York City in the 1800s. Of a family and friends and a strike. But the records the House of El had sent were just as unhelpful on that front as they were with information about his powers. He spent most of high school researching, everything from theories on reincarnation, reports of alien abductions, to the newspaper industry. 
  * It was the later that he discovered a real passion for and decided that he would go to college in Metropolis for journalism. He was about a month into his first semester when he got a call from his Ma saying that he needed to come home. Immediately. So he dropped his books off in his dorm, stuck his glasses in his pocket and used superspeed to run to the edge of the city before taking flight towards Kansas. He reached the farm and found a ship identical to his own in a crater in the middle of the cow pasture. He rushed into the house only to see Ma trying to soothe a teenage girl who was babbling in what he now knew was Kryptonian. She looked up when he came in and froze, the next thing she said was very clearly English and was more startling then anything else that day. “David? But I’m supposed to be older than you?”
  * Turns out that Sarah had also been reincarnated on the world of Krypton but was born quite a few years before David and had been sent to Earth as well to protect him but her ship had been knocked off course, resulting in her appearance now and David being roughly two years her elder. She didn’t have any previous memories until David walked in the door, they seemed to have resurfaced when she saw him. They were shocked and thankful to have each other but were hit with sudden grief at the lack of Les. David skipped class for the rest of the day to be with Sarah. 
  * Sarah was homeschooled while David finished his first year at college, they spent nearly every second of the summer together catching up and Sarah telling David about Krypton while David told her about how much and yet how little Earth had changed. They also helped each other learn to use their powers. For David’s second year in Metropolis Sarah attended Smallville High as a senior and the next fall joined him in Metropolis. It was that September that Zod tried to take over the world and the siblings donned traditional Kryptonian garb and fought to protect their once and current home. Zod was defeated but they had made international news, aliens were real and two of them were Metropolis’s heroes. 
  * The fight drew more than just general curiosity, they returned to their apartment after class one day to find Batman sitting on their sofa and someone rummaging in their kitchen. They froze, staring at the storied Dark Knight sitting in their living room as he starred back. A voice from the kitchen caused them all to jump as a girl said “I still don’t understand why you had to come in the full suit! They’re obviously just college kids, something you should be too might I add, there’s no need to scare them. Really, a domino mask would have been sufficient.” It was Sarah who recovered first, pushing past David toward the kitchen as she called an incredulous “Katherine?!” “How- Sarah?!” David closed the door and inched toward the kitchen to see the two girls embracing fiercely. David jumped again as an equally familiar voice sounded from behind him, “Now this  _is_  a surprise. How’ve you been Davey?” David turned to see Jack pushing down his cowl and maybe it was good that Jack was wearing the suit because David was a little too excited to control his super strength when he gave Jack a hug. 



Racetrack/Flash

  * So Race had a really average childhood; mom, dad, picket fence, golden retriever, the whole nine yards. Until middle school, he came home from school one day to see police cars in front of his house, in his driveway, practically on his front lawn and the sirens were still going off. He ran past the neighbors gathered to see the commotion and ducked under the police tape, running straight into his living room to see his dad being handcuffed and cops huddled around his mom’s body. He threw up and was immediately removed from the area. His father was accused of his mom’s murder even though Race knew his dad would never do such a thing. Race ended up living with the Garricks, foster parents who never had kids of their own and tried to make Race feel as welcome as possible.
  * The Garricks helped Race through the rest of his mom’s investigation and his dad’s trial. The day the guilty verdict came through they filed for adoption papers for Race. That night the nightmares that he’d been having about coming home that day changed and instead were cramped tenements with laundry on fire escapes and the Brooklyn Bridge and a statue? The sirens were replaced by shouts, “Fire at Ellis Island!” and “Papes here! Get’cha papes!” turning to “STRIKE! STRIKE! STRIKE!” and “There’s more where that came from Pulitzer!” Poker games bled into horse races bled into passing a cigarette back and forth turned to an unlit cigar jammed into his mouth. He woke up confused and exhausted and feeling sick. 
  * Joan tried to help him, writing down every detail as Race told her of his dreams before handing him back the notebook and her laptop, telling him that maybe there’s an explanation for it. Because the Garricks were a lot like Race’s parents in that way, everything had an explanation and you just had to put the effort into finding it. Race turned up the strike and showed Joan in shock, the old paper definitely had his picture in it. Joan had frowned and calmly told him that stranger things had happened than reincarnation. Race didn’t believe that was what happened and turned to science, he’d already been working on figuring out  who really killed his mom without telling anyone, figuring out what was happening to him shouldn’t be nearly as hard as getting access to police evidence had been. 
  * By the time Race was in grad school he was no closer to proving his dad’s innocence as he was to giving a scientific explanation for his weird history ridden dreams. He was finishing up work in the lab late one night when a nasty thunderstorm rolled in, lightening struck the building and the window next to Race shattered. The force knocked over a shelf of chemicals as a second strike of lightening hit Race the same instant he was doused in the chemicals. After that… well things are hazy but Race remembers more sirens and yelling and sometimes the yells were “His blood pressure is dropping!” “Tony! Tony! Can you hear me?” and sometimes they were “The World will know!” “Racetrack! Hey Race, wait up!” but under it all were those damn sirens.
  * He woke up months later in a hospital bed, wires and tubes seeming to cover him and all lead back to beeping machines. He was groggy and his head hurt and what the hell, Spot still owed him a quarter and Albert had run off with his cigar again. He was grumbling when a nurse walked in and blinked at him in surprise, only to rush out and return moments later with a doctor. They explained to him that despite his accident he seemed completely normal, not even so much as a scratch from the glass when they brought him in. They’d get right to work on releasing him and call his parents to come get him. Race had corrected them on that, they’d be calling the Garricks, not his parents. When Jay and Joan picked him up they brought fresh clothes and gave him more hugs than Race thought was possible. He just returned them and expressed how hungry he was. They went home and Joan made dinner. And more dinner. And more dinner. Race ate five times what he normally did that night. 
  * The next week Race tried to get back in the swing of things, the fall semester had started and Race had been allowed to enroll late in classes that he missed while he was in the hospital in a coma. He was running late thanks to a train delay though and started sprinting across campus, only to find the world slowing down around him as he ran. He skidded to a stop and nearly hit the side of the building, shaking himself off Race checked his watch, only seconds had passed. He blinked and checked again. He wasn’t sure how but Race ran roughly three blocks in under three seconds. Frowning, he set his stopwatch and ran to his classroom, less than a second. A wind whipped up in his wake left books and papers twirling through the building. Race had to admit that there was something abnormal going on… 
  * He turned his free time to testing this newfound speed, which he ultimately had to admit was a superpower, and investigating the reports of the superheroes that were cropping up around the country. He pushed the mystery of his dreams to the back of his mind but something about the articles he was reading about the reported Batman, Wonder Woman, and the new alien heroes of Superman and Supergirl made the dreams occur with more frequency and in more detail. Less a scattering of images and sounds and feelings and more concrete scenes. 
  * After a lot of consideration, Race decided to tell the Garricks about his speed. At first they seemed surprised but Race noticed with confusion that neither of them doubted him or even questioned him. Jay stood up from the couch and had Race follow him up to his workshop above the garage, a place Race had never been allowed to go. Now he knew why. It was filled with newspaper clippings and memorabilia for a superhero named the Flash. For Jay. He started training Race and helping him to learn about his speed and how to control it. Although he didn’t have any intentions originally he discovered that he did want to be a hero, he wanted there to be a world where innocent men weren’t punished. With Jay’s permission and help Race took on the mantle of the Flash. 
  * Now focusing on being a superhero and a student, Race had let his article reading on the other heroes fall to the wayside and with it his strange dreams had as well. Even with that, Race was surprised to see the two Kryptonians and Amazon standing waiting for him as he ran the last of an apartment building’s residents to safety as the fire trucks pulled up. Initially angry that they hadn’t helped Race pulled up short, frowning at the three for a different reason. “I know you,” he said as he pointed between them. “Most people do,” Superman gave him a wry smile and why was that dry humor seem so familiar? “No. I  _know_  you. I, I don’t know how but I  _do_ ,” he insisted. Wonder Woman’s expression changed and Race didn’t know how but he knew that look meant something just clicked for her. “Racetrack?” she whispered and Race felt himself freeze, not even daring to draw a breath. Finally he found his voice, albeit a small whisper, “No- no one’s called me that in years.” Other than the people in his dreams the only person who called him that had been his mother, a joke about how slow he used to be. Ironic now. Wonder Woman’s face split into a grin, one her companions matched as Supergirl said “Oh we  _so_  need to call Bats.”
  * Race met the three of them in Gotham, standing in a clearing in the middle of the woods and feeling like an idiot. They’d given him some fancy gps to use to get here and now he had the nagging suspicion he’d been pranked. Until three figures appeared over the treetops and landed in front of him. Wonder Woman lunged and pulled him into a hug, had Race been expecting it he’d have dodged but as it was she caught him by complete surprise. “So you’re the Flash,” a man said from somewhere behind Race. Again, it tickled at the back of his mind as someone he should know but he couldn’t for the life of him place it. Wonder Woman released him and Race turned to find himself face to face with Batman who Race thought really didn’t look that much older than him and should probably be called Batboy. “And you’re real,” he said like the smartass he was. Batman smirked, “Well some things never change.” Race frowned and backed away from the four other heroes, “Look, I don’t know what’s going on but if you’re here to tell me I owe dues to be an official superhero or something that’s not gonna happen. I’m broke and still live at home. If you’re here to tell me to knock it off, also not gonna happen and why the hell couldn’t you have done that back in Central. The whole ‘I am the night’ schtick is significantly less effective in the light of day and standing next to the ultimate boy scout.” Superman’s brow furrowed, “You don’t know who we are.” Race huffed, “Other than your codenames or whatever the hell you want to call them to make yourself sound cool, nope. There’s  _something_  telling me that I do know you but I don’t know how or why or what about you looks so damn familiar, except for the guy dressed up as an actual bat and wow you really took this whole thing literally man.” 
  * Jack took his cowl off after that and if anything made Race even more annoyed that he couldn’t place them. Sarah was the one who took pity on him as the other three looked varying degrees of hurt and puzzled. She introduced each of them and Race dropped his own cowl, she offered to explain and he settled on the grass as she did. About halfway through telling him about being reincarnated somehow and it was like Race managed to turn a puzzle piece in his brain just the right way to make it fit and he remembered and his dreams all made sense. He made Jack squeak he tackled the other boy that fast in a hug. Feeling truly at ease for the first time since his mother’s murder Race ran between the three of them giving them hugs and jabbering excitedly about his dreams and them all making sense and how happy he was to see them and holy cow what’re the odds that they’d all wind up as superheroes or y’know reincarnated at all and did the know anyone else? That was a no but Kath explained that the pattern seemed to be holding true about recent superheroes being ex-newsies, at least with the five of them, and they’d just have to wait to see if another hero showed up. In the meantime, Race was officially invited to game night at the Manor and had full access to all of Jack’s vast resources. Allowing him to start to seriously investigate his mother’s death.



Spot/Green Lantern:

  * Spot was lucky, at least he considered himself lucky. When he was growing up in Brooklyn he’d get weird senses of deja vu, images overlapping in his mind of what he saw and what he… remembered? Eventually he decided that this was just the way it was: images of a life lived superimposed over a life being lived. 
  * Spot was still King of Brooklyn, star kicker on his football team, full ride to college. He had a great dad and good friends, sure he had better friends Before but that was then and this was now. His dad was a pilot and had helped Spot get his pilot’s license. That was his favorite part of this century, being able to fly. On weekends he’d take out his dad’s little biplane and fly out over Long Island and back. Spot was doing this one weekend while his dad was working, he’d planned it so they’d land about the same time. He locked up the hangar and made his way to the commercial gates to wait. After an hour Spot finally checked his phone, a news alert showed that his dad’s flight had gone down somewhere over the Atlantic due to engine failure. Spot left the airport and went right to his family’s lawyers to argue for possession of his dad’s estate. He didn’t care about bank accounts or the brownstone his dad owned, Spot wasn’t letting anyone take away his father’s biplane. Despite not being able to even legally drink, Spot convinced them to honor his dad’s will and gained full possession of the estate. And the plane.
  * He’d stopped playing football and dropped out of full time school, taking online classes as he looked into what could have caused the engine failure. He essentially became a self-taught engineer. He took a break to fly and clear his head one night, during which he saw a strange object plummet to the ground. He followed it down and landed in a clearing, inching towards the crater it created. He realized it was a ship. Spot had seen the news, he knew aliens were real, he just never thought he’d see one. Especially one that was so obviously dying. He rushed to help but the alien just relayed some cryptic message about the ring choosing him and he’d now be responsible for more than just Brooklyn’s protection. Spot struggled to comprehend but if this is how the man wanted to spend his last moment then Spot would indulge him. He took the ring and repeated the silly rhyme. Content the alien died and Spot was left stunned and with a glowing green ring on his finger.
  * The ring took him to Oa and Spot was given a crash course in being a Green Lantern. Apparently he was the most willful being on the planet. Spot knew he was stubborn but whenever he thought of will he thought of his old life - Cowboy and the Walking Mouth and Pulitzer and Crutchie - or of his dad. The whole Green Lantern thing was a learning experience. The suit was dumb, Spot wasn’t quite positive on the duties of a space cop, and sometimes the ring was more stubborn than he was. But he got the hang of the constructs and flying? That was his favorite part. He’d started in Brooklyn, helping out at fires and stopping robberies. Eventually he was patrolling all of New York and that time he poured into learning mechanics and engineering was paying off with every construct he made. He soon caught the eye of reporters and apparently super villains because the next thing he knew he was trying to contain the impact of a bomb meant to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge. He  _Was Not_  going to let that happen but the bubble he’d created to contain the blast was starting to crack and there were people on the bridge. He heard shouts and knew a news helicopter was flying around but he couldn’t focus on that. It wasn’t until a girl was hovering beside him, breathing ice to help reinforce his containment bubble, did Spot even know they were there.
  * Supergirl’s ice fractured in the blast once the bridge was cleared and Spot had dropped his construct. No one was hurt and the bridge was intact. “I’d have hated to see it destroyed,” Supergirl said as they landed on the walkway beneath one of the pillars. “Me too,” Spot responded automatically. His brain pulled up memories of the times he’d walked it going to or coming from the Manhattan Lodging House. Or of waiting at the end of it for Race to come for a game of cards, cigar in his mouth and hands in his pockets as he walked across. Supergirl gave him a strange look but turned back to the others that had gathered on the bridge. Spot ignored them as he looked out toward Brooklyn. The sound of voices drew Spot’s attention, the huddle of other heroes were talking and all sounded just as relieved about the bridge’s fate as Spot. It wasn’t that which bothered Spot, it was the fact that those were voices from Before. Spot approached them and stopped, looking in awe at David, Sarah, and Katherine. A man in red who Spot thought was called Flash rambled excitedly about walking to the races and Spot felt himself smile. “So Racer,” he called out, drawing the four heroes’ attention, “do you want that quarter with or without interest?”
  * Spot was immediately engulfed in hugs and told to follow them to Gotham where they stopped in front of the entrance to a cave. David typed in a passcode on a keypad Spot hadn’t initially noticed and the heavy metal door slid open for them. Spot was struck speechless when they reached the main cave. A gust of wind and Race was beside him in street clothes and a grin. Spot willed away his costume so that he too was left in street clothes. He continued to stare in awe as Race pointed things out to him. An elevator opened and Jack stepped out, he looked annoyed in a rumpled t-shirt and pajama pants. “Can no one use the front door anymore?” he grumbled. Spot grinned, wicked and he knew it. “Long time no see, Jacky-boy.” Jack cursed as the others laughed and soon he was being ushered upstairs for breakfast (”Jack it’s two pm.” “Well Davey some of us hero the night shift.”) and to be brought up to speed.



Crutchie/Aquaman:

  * Charlie knew that just about everything weird in his life as a teenager in a small town could be blamed on hormones. Shooting up three inches in a week, sleeping for 12 hours, eating an entire large pizza by himself. These he knew were normal. Hearing voices and having half remembered experiences on a school trip were not. They’d gone to New York City and the minute he got there Charlie was struck with the weirdest sense of deja vu. He also felt like everything he saw was wrong somehow. The ferry out to Ellis Island wasn’t much better, he kept hearing snatches of conversation but no one around him was talking. He spent the whole day thinking he was going crazy and that there was no way the day could get weirder when he was leaning against the railing on the top deck of the ferry back and they hit a wave and a classmate hit him and next thing he knew Charlie was tumbling thirty feet through the air and hitting the icy water.
  * Half thinking he was dead, Charlie opened his eyes to find himself face to face with a dolphin. Startled he opened his mouth and a stream of bubbles rose up. Charlie clamped his mouth shut as to not waste anymore air. The dolphin inclined its head in a bow of sorts before speaking. It didn’t open its mouth to talk, had it Charlie would’ve known this was all in his head like some crazy cartoon come to life. Instead it came through his mind, like a song getting stuck in his head. It asked if Charlie would like to go up. Knowing he was going to need air and soon, even if he didn’t feel like it, Charlie nodded. He grabbed the dolphin’s dorsal fin as it instructed and allowed it to pull him to the surface. Just before Charlie broke through the waves the dolphin disappeared with a cryptic “It’s been an honor, my young king.”
  * After the New York incident, Charlie was given a strict “no oceans” rule. Which he thought was a pointless since they lived in a lighthouse. He mostly followed it though because whenever he walked on the beach he heard voices again. One winter break when he was home from school the rule just couldn’t be followed though. A nasty storm had come in and a small sailboat bobbed in the water, trying desperately to make it in and just being swept further and further out to sea. He knew it was dumb, the sea was ice cold and pissed off, but Charlie was determined to see that boat come in. He rushed to their small motorboat and raced out to meet the sailboat. Just as he reached it a wave overturned his boat and Charlie was sent down into the water. He panicked, waiting for a shock of cold that never came. On instinct he took a relieved breath in and found that even while deep underwater he could breath. Above him he could still see the sailboat struggling so he kicked upward and grabbed on of its lines. Feeling oddly like the little mermaid, Charlie swam towards shore and pulled the boat behind him. 
  * Getting his parents to explain to him about Atlantis and his mother’s abdication of the throne had been a struggle. Getting them to let him go visit and learn about the apparent power he had was even harder.
  * Returning to the surface after a crash course in Atlantean history, politics, and culture was welcome. His blonde hair somehow made him suspicious to the superstitious people and his human father made him even more untrustworthy. Despite his supposedly royal blood. He came home to stories of heroes showing up across the country and Charlies decided that if Atlantis didn’t want him than he would find his place on land. He fashioned himself an identity and costume and when reports came in about an attack on Happy Harbor he got himself there. He’d seen pictures and videos of the heroes who had responded to the attack, but seeing them in person gave him the same feeling as his New York trip. He pushed it aside and jumped into the fight.
  * The fight ended and on instinct Charlie turned to the man next to him and smiled, “Well Jack, I’d say we won.” The man froze and Charlie registered that he was wearing a mask that covered nearly his entire face. Embarrassment caused his cheeks to flush, he didn’t know this man and even if he did he’d never be able to tell. The corner of the man’s mouth twitched up, “Yeah, we did.” Just like that memories slotted themselves into place and Charlie didn’t know how or why but somehow he had wound up fighting alongside his friends again.



Les/(Take a guess):

  * Jack knew he should’ve told them right away, but the kid had just lost his parents and realized that there had been a whole other life that he had lived on the same night. The kid had a lot to process and clinging to Jack seemed to be the only thing that was helping. Plus, Gotham had less rules, and certainly less strict ones, than Metropolis. And, Jack had more money than them, and they  _all_  knew that money meant power no matter where or when. So he got custody and moved the kid into the Manor and let him settle in. He loved David and Sarah but there was no way he was springing them on Les right away. 
  * By the time Les had settled enough for Jack to feel comfortable introducing him to the others it had been a couple months. And Les may have taken it upon himself to start training in the cave. And Jack knew it really wasn’t his place and he’d never really been able to tell Les no. He’d just have to deal with David’s wrath, and hope that Sarah didn’t fry him with her heat vision. It wasn’t like Jack was letting him come on patrols.
  * David and Sarah flipped. They were very glad to see their brother, and he was thrilled to see them, but still. Unsurprisingly it was only a matter of minutes before all was forgiven, Les trying to wheedle candy out of Race (who wasn’t supposed to have candy to begin with) and somehow there was talk of suits for the kid.
  * After a lot of debate and puppy eyes, Les would remain with Jack in Gotham and spend free time with his siblings. He’d also be getting the opportunity to be a hero too, under the name Robin.



Denton/Gotham City Police Commissioner:

  * Denton recognized Jack the second he saw him but he had to push that information (even though it was new and exciting and confusing) to the back of his mind as he focused on the task at hand. Ultimately, he decided not to tell Jack the truth; hoping that someone whose whole life was full of so much pain would take the chance to try and start over. The kid had been given a second chance even with this tragedy and Denton wanted to make sure he took it. 
  * The very first time Denton met the mythic Batman he knew. It was unmistakably Jack. But as much as it hurt him, Denton knew that not acknowledging him was the only way to be able to work with Batman. Giving himself plausible deniability. He wanted to help people just as much as he did before.
  * Seeing Kath hurt even more than working with Jack, because Kath was family to him and keeping that blank face as her hope turned to sadness to curated professionalism was like a knife.
  * It only got worse the more friends Jack found. Denton so desperately wanted to talk to them, to hug them, to tell them all how proud he was. If he did thought then the gig would be up. No more deniability. So he took the peeks he got of the people they’d become, the selfless and kind people, and he made do with that and knowing that they had each other.



General notes? Cause I went overboard with this. 

  * Memories come back thanks to trauma or familiarity or some combination with the only exceptions being David’s whose manifestation corresponded with his powers’ and Katherine who was an Amazon and the rules for them loosely follow the origins in the book Wonder Woman: Warbringer. Spot always has them from still living in Brooklyn, Sarah gains hers from seeing her brother, Jack gets them the night of his parents’ murder, Race starts getting them after his mom’s death and dad’s arrest, etc. 
  * They will eventually officially become the Justice League and have a Watchtower but that’s a few years down the line. For now they’re still figuring out the whole hero thing and getting to know each other again so it’s all very informal. 
  * And now a very comic book explanation (mixed with greek mythology cause why not) for the various reincarnations: The Endless Destiny carries the Book of Souls which lays out the fates of all the multiverse and in the Book it decrees that, should they choose, heroes may return to give their lives as heroes again. They all choose that and the book fated that while they may not all begin their lives on the same world, or even all be simply human, they would find each other and be heroes together once more. (How’s that for a plot hole fix when my real answer is cause it just works better that way and idk how Sarah and David wound up Kryptonians and Kath an Amazon and no one else.)



**Author's Note:**

> If you got a kick out of this find me on tumblr [@thelittleredheadedmusician](https://thelittleredheadedmusician.tumblr.com/) for more DC and Newsies and a hot mess of other things.


End file.
